Obalenie pomnika dyktatora Envera Hodży w Tiranie, stolicy Albanii, przez Albańczyków 20 lutego 1991.
“The winning project was highly appreciated for its sensitive approach to the subject itself and to that of the surrounding landscape where the memorial will be situated, as well as for fulfilling the conditions of the economic suitability of the design.”
The assumed costs for building the memorial are, according to expert estimates, CZK 31.5 million [EUR 1.18 million] during the first phase of realization. The memorial will be financed by multiple sources, with most of the budget covered by the EEA and Norway Grants.
The building of the memorial is connected to the demolition of the now-defunct industrial pig farm in that location, which was bought out by the state on the basis of Decree no. 609 of the Government of the Czech Republic on 21 August 2017. Preparations to announce the tender for the demolition work have already begun and the demolition itself will begin in the second half of 2020. The opening of the new memorial to the public is planned for 2023.
Detailed information about the competition and the background materials for it are available on the competition website in Czech and English: www.newmemoriallety.com.
The „gypsy camp“ at Lety was established on the site of a former disciplinary labour camp. The camp's capacity was increased so that it was able to take up to 600 prisoners, but that number, too, was soon exceeded, since during August 1942 over 1 100 men, women and children were interned in the camp. The camp was not equipped with the necessary sanitation and other facilities for such a large number of people. Moreover, until August 1942 only men had been imprisoned here. From August 1942 on, women and children had to live here too, in totally inadequate conditions. After the influx in August 1942, subsequent new arrivals were mostly individuals or families. The number of prisoners thus did not continue to rise, but the unsatisfactory conditions in the camp remained practically unchanged.
In all, 1 309 people were interned in the camp, of whom 326 survived their internment. A quarter of the prisoners were released or escaped. The remaining prisoners were transported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
Two mass transports took place. The first was a transport of „asocials“ which set out for the Auschwitz I concentration camp on the 3rd of December 1942, numbering 16 men and 78 women. The second transport marked the practical closing of the camp, since 417 prisoners were taken to the Auschwitz II - Birkenau camp. While the first transport took place on the basis of a decree on crime prevention, the second took place on the basis of Himmler's decree from the 16th of December 1942 (link in Czech), ordering the transport of all Roma to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
The remaining 198 prisoners were transferred to the „gypsy camp“ at Hodonín u Kunštátu or to collection camps in Prague and Pardubice. Only a few of them were released.
A fragment of the winning design